Systems and methods for stateful packet processing

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are provided for processing a received packet based on associated state information. A packet processor of a network device receives a packet from a network. The received packet is classified as belonging to at least one respective identified flow from among a plurality of identified flows. For a respective received packet that belongs to an identified flow a current state value for the identified flow is ascertained based on a state table. The current state value is assigned to the respective received packet based on the current state value using the state table for the identified flow. A packet processing operation is subsequently performed on the respective received packet based in part on the state value of the identified flow to which the respective packet belongs.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/623,955, filed Jan. 30, 2018, andU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/728,619, filed Sep. 7, 2018,the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by referenceherein.

FIELD OF USE

This disclosure generally relates to the field of data communications,and specifically, to methods and systems for processing packets by anetwork device based on packet headers and state information.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The background description provided herein is for the purpose ofgenerally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of theinventors hereof, to the extent the work is described in this backgroundsection, as well as aspects of the description that does not otherwisequalify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly norimpliedly admitted to be prior art against the present disclosure.

A packet switch (or router) is a basic building block of datacommunication networks. The packet switch is configured to forwardpackets based on their content, and more specifically header data at thebeginning of the packets. As part of the forwarding operation, packetsare marked, assigned to a different network, dropped or the like.Typically, a packet switch includes an ingress path and an egress path,which handle the incoming and outgoing traffic. Each path contains apacket processor, which performs operations such as updating the headerof a packet, inserting or removing data from the header of the packet,or in some instances, dropping specific packets.

It is often useful to classify packets received via a network based oninformation in the received packet headers and a state in the networkdevice. Existing systems require implementing stateful behavior only forspecific mechanisms. For example, when performing a policing operation,a dedicated policer engine maintains information about the number ofpackets/bytes received for a given flow at the network device to make aforwarding/filtering/remarking decision. However, in conventionalsystems, the dedicated policer engine is limited to the policingoperation but does not consider state information of data packets forvarious packet processing operations.

SUMMARY

Methods and systems are provided for processing a received packet basedon associated state information. A packet processor of a network devicereceives a packet from a network. The received packet is classified asbelonging to at least one respective identified flow from among aplurality of identified flows. For a respective received packet thatbelongs to an identified flow a current state value for the identifiedflow is ascertained based on a state table. The current state value isassigned to the respective received packet based on the current statevalue using the state table for the identified flow. A packet processingoperation is subsequently performed on the respective received packetbased in part on the state value of the identified flow to which therespective packet belongs.

In some embodiments, performing the packet processing operation based inpart on the state value of the identified flow includes performing oneor more processing operations such as a forwarding operation to forwardthe respective received packet to one or more different destinationsbased at least in part on the state value, a packet mirroring operationto mirror the respective received packet one or more times based atleast in part on the state value, or a quality-of-service (QoS)operation to apply a QOS level to the respective received packet basedat least in part on the state value.

In some embodiments, ascertaining the current state value includesascertaining the state value indicative of a number of previouslyreceived packets belonging to the identified flow.

In some embodiments, in response to classifying the received packet asbelonging to at least one respective identified flow, the state valueindicative of a number of previously received packets belonging to therespective identified flow is updated in the state table associated withthe identified flow. The updated state value is indicative of a numberof currently received packets belonging to the respective identifiedflow.

In some embodiments, updating the state value stored in the state tableincludes setting an initial value of the state value equal to apre-defined number and decrementing the state value by 1 for eachreceived packet belonging to the identified flow.

In some embodiments, performing a packet processing operation on therespective received packet based in part on the state value of the flowto which the respective packet belongs, further includes performing afirst packet processing operation on the respective received packet whenthe state value equals a non-zero value, and performing a second packetprocessing operation, different from the first packet processingoperation, on the respective received packet when the state value equalszero.

In some embodiments, performing a packet processing operation on therespective received packet based in part on the state value of the flowto which the respective packet belongs further includes mirroring therespective received packet to a central processing unit (CPU) when thestate value equals a non-zero value.

In some embodiments, a metadata value associated with the respectivereceived packet equal is assigned a value V1 when the state value isequal to a target value. The metadata value associated with therespective received packet equal is assigned a value V2 when the statevalue is not equal to the target value. Moreover, the packet processingoperation on the respective received packet is performed based on themetadata value associated with the respective received packet.

In some embodiments, performing the packet processing operation on therespective received packet based on the metadata value associated withthe respective received packet includes adding telemetry information tothe respective received packet when the metadata value associated withthe respective received packet is equal to the value V1 indicative ofthe state value being equal to the target value.

In some embodiments, classifying the received packets as belonging to atleast one respective identified flow from among the plurality ofidentified flows includes identifying the flow from the plurality ofidentified flows based on a packet header and attributes of therespective received packet, and accessing a state table corresponding tothe identified flow, the state table being indicative of a number ofreceived packets assigned to the respective flow.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a network device is providedfor processing a received packet based on associated state information.The network device includes a packet processor configured to receivepackets from a network. The network device also includes controlcircuitry configured to classify a received packet as belonging to atleast one respective identified flow from among a plurality ofidentified flows, and for a respective received packet that belongs toan identified flow: ascertain, based on a state table, a current statevalue for the identified flow, assign, using the state table for theidentified flow, the current state value to the respective receivedpacket based on the current state value, and perform a packet processingoperation on the respective received packet based in part on the statevalue of the identified flow to which the respective packet belongs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features of the disclosure, its nature and various advantageswill become apparent upon consideration of the following detaileddescription, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, inwhich like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates a network device in accordance with the disclosedembodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a specific implementation of the network devicehaving a state table in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 3 presents a flow chart illustrating a process for processing areceived packet based on associated state information in accordance withthe disclosed embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure describes methods and systems for stateful packetprocessing for a stream of packets received at a network device.Specifically, in accordance with an implementation, a network deviceprocesses a packet received at an ingress interface based on an assignedflow and a current state value indicative of a history of previouslyreceived packets within the assigned flow.

Network devices, such as switches, bridges and routers, sometimes areimplemented using a pipelined hardware architecture in which thedifferent entities of a processing pipeline recognize and process astream of network packets at high data rates, for example, up to 100Gigabits per second. It is noted that although the present disclosure isdiscussed in the context of a pipelined hardware architecture (e.g., anapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) pipeline), the disclosureis not so limited, and the methods and systems discussed herein can beimplemented in programmable processors having various architectures. Forexample, in some implementations, network devices are implemented as aplurality of programmable processing engines coupled together as apipeline. In still other implementations, network devices areimplemented as a multiplicity of programmable processing engines eachoperating as a run-to-completion processing engine.

For example, in an implementation, a pipeline in a network deviceprocesses packets received by the device and then forwards the packetsto appropriate egress ports of the device. The packets are forwarded toone or more egress ports of the device according to a forwardingdecision, which are based on one or more fields of one or more headerspresent within the frame.

Some network devices employ one or more “processing engines” thatperform various packet-processing operations, such as a policingoperation. In some embodiments, the network devices employ processingengines that are implemented as ASIC devices in an ASIC pipeline. It isnoted that network devices, in some embodiments, employ processingengines that are implemented as software modules in programmable packetprocessors. Network devices, therefore, are required to includededicated processing engines to perform the desired processingoperations. However, the packet-processing operation capability of thenetwork device is limited by the specific dedicated engines includedwithin the network device, because conventional network devices areoften preconfigured to perform only a limited number ofpacket-processing operations based on the specific dedicated processingengines included therein.

Accordingly, methods and techniques for generic stateful packetprocessing in a network device are disclosed. More specifically, methodsand techniques are provided for assigning different packet processingoperations based on a combination of classifying a received packet to aparticular flow and performing a packet processing operation on thereceived packet based on state information maintained for the assignedflow. Example methods and apparatus are described herein in the contextof Ethernet networks. It is noted, in light of the disclosure andteachings herein, that similar methods and apparatus are suitable foruse in other suitable communication networks as well. Therefore, it isintended for this disclosure and the following claims to cover allsuitable communication networks.

The methods and processes described in the detailed description sectionare, in some implementations, embodied as code and/or data, which arestored in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. When acomputer system reads and executes the code and/or data stored on thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the computer systemperforms the methods and processes embodied as data structures and codeand stored within the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.Furthermore, the methods and processes described below are, in someimplementations, included in hardware modules. For example, in variousimplementations, the hardware modules include, but are not limited to,ASIC chips, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), tables stored inmemory arrays, and other programmable-logic devices now known or laterdeveloped. When the hardware modules are activated, the hardware modulesperform the methods and processes included within the hardware modules.In some implementations, the methods and processes described below areincluded in software modules.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a network device 100, accordingto some embodiments described herein. Network device 100 includes apacket ingress interface 102 where a stream of packets is received to beprocessed and routed to their respective destinations. The networkdevice 100 further includes a flow classification engine 104 configuredto assign each of the received packets to a respective flow. Forexample, in an implementation, the flow classification engine 104assigns the received packets to different flows using knownclassification methods such as a Ternary Content Addressable Memory(TCAM) lookup or an exact-match lookup method. It is noted that theabove-referenced flow classification methods are for example purposesonly and that the received stream of packets are classified using anynumber of known flow classification methods in various implementations.

The network device 100 further includes a state engine 106. The stateengine 106 has a state table which stores a state for each flow, a stateupdate logic which updates the state of the respective flow in responseto receiving a packet, and a packet command assignment logic whichassigns a packet command to each packet based on the value of therespective state, in an implementation. The contents of the state engine106 are described below in greater detail with reference to FIG. 2.

In an embodiment, the state engine 106 updates the metadata of thereceived packet to include state information. The metadata for thereceived packet is made up of any information related to the packet thatis not directly taken from the packet header or payload, andspecifically contains information about the state. For example, themetadata for the packet is made up of the value of the state. In anembodiment, the metadata of the packet is assigned a value V1 when thestate is equal to zero and a value V2 when the state is equal to anon-zero value. As will be discussed below, the metadata value is usedto perform different pre-configured actions on the received packet.

The network device 100 also includes a Programmable Header Alteration(PHA) engine 108 configured to use the state information. In someembodiments, the PHA engine 108 performs flexible header modification tothe received packets based on metadata associated with the respectivepackets and based on programmable microcode that is used in the PHAengine 108. In some embodiments, the PHA engine 108 uses the stateinformation updated by the state engine 106. For example, in animplementation, the PHA engine 108 applies different microcode threadsto different metadata values, or uses the metadata in the microcode,thereby creating conditional code sections for different metadatavalues.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the various engines are provided in a‘pipeline’ architecture, in an implementation. It is noted that each ofthe described engines above is implemented as a sub-block of anotherengine in the pipeline. Moreover, in some implementations, additionalengines are provided between each of the engines described above.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a state table 200 within anetwork device 100, according to some embodiments described herein. Asdiscussed above, the network device 100 seen in FIG. 2 includes a stateengine 106. The state engine 106 includes, or is coupled to, a statetable 200 configured to store state information for each of theplurality of identified flows. As shown in FIG. 2, the state table 200for an identified flow includes an entry for a state 210 indicative of anumber of previously received packets belonging to the identified flow.The state table 200 for the identified flow further includes an entryfor a state update logic 220. In accordance with an embodiment, when thestate update logic 220 is set to “Enable”, the state 210 is updated inresponse to the respective received packet being assigned to theidentified flow.

In accordance with disclosed methods and systems here, the value of thestate 210 is updated for each packet in the flow. As discussed above,state 210 is indicative of a number of previously received packetsbelonging to the identified flow. For example, the state 210 indicates asequential location of a current received packet in a stream of packetsclassified as belonging to the identified flow. In some embodiments, thestate 210 is decremented by 1 in response to each packet beingclassified as belonging to the identified flow. For example, in someembodiments, the state is implemented by a register that is initializedto a first value V and decremented by 1 for each received packetbelonging to the identified flow.

In some embodiments, the state engine 106 is configured to reset thestate to the value after reaching the value 0 and subsequently receivinga packet assigned to the respective flow.

As shown in FIG. 2, the state table 200 also includes an entry for astate target value 230. The entry for state target value 230 definespre-configured actions to be performed (e.g., packet commands) when thestate reaches the pre-defined target value. For example, in someembodiments, when the state 210 reaches a pre-defined target value(e.g., N1), the state engine 106 assigns a first pre-configured packetcommand to the respective received packet. The pre-configured packetcommand, in accordance with one embodiment, is a packet mirroringcommand to mirror the respective received packet one or more time.

In some embodiments, the state target value 230 stores more than onetarget values with each target value being assigned a different packetcommand. For example, in some embodiments, when the state 210 reaches asecond pre-defined target value (e.g., N2), the state engine 106 assignsa second pre-configured packet command to the respective receivedpacket. The pre-configured packet command, in accordance with oneembodiment, is a quality-of-service (QOS) operation to apply a QOS levelto the respective received packet. It is noted that the first and secondpre-configured packet commands discussed above are only examples, andthat, in various embodiments, the state engine 106 assigns any number ofsuitable pre-configured commands based on one or more state targetvalues stored in state target value 230.

As further illustrated in FIG. 2, the state table 200 for the identifiedflow also includes an entry for a state continuous update logic 240. Thestate continuous update logic 240 determines whether the state 210 iscontinuously updates after reaching the state target value as defined inthe entry for the state target value 230, or the state 210 is fixed atthe Target value once it is reached. In accordance with an embodiment,when the state continuous update logic 240 is set to “Enable”, the state210 continues to be updated (e.g., continues to be decremented by 1)after the state 210 reaches the target value as defined in the entry forthe state target value 230. In accordance with an embodiment, when thestate continuous update logic 240 is set to “Disable”, the state 210 isnot updated after the state 210 reaches the target value as defined inthe entry for the state target value 230 (i.e., state 210 stays atpre-defined target value N1). As will be described below in greaterdetail, different packet commands are assigned to the packets based onthe corresponding state 210, in accordance with various embodiments.

A pathway of a received packet will be described below in accordancewith an embodiment of the present disclosure in which the network deviceis configured to assign a first packet command on the first N packets inthe identified flow. A packet is received through the ingress interface102. The classification engine 104 classifies the received packet asbelonging to at least one respective identified flow from among aplurality of identified flows. For example, in some embodiments, thereceived packet is assigned to one of the plurality of identified flowsbased on information extracted from a header of the received packet,such as a destination, a packet type, an application type,quality-of-service, or the like.

The state engine 106 accesses the state table 200 for the identifiedflow (e.g., based on a flow identifier assigned by the classificationengine 104) to determine the state associated with the received packet.The state 210 is updated by the state engine 106 in response to therespective received packet being assigned to the identified flow.Moreover, the state 210 is compared to the state target value 230 todetermine whether the pre-defined target value N has been reached. Ifthe state 210 has not reached the pre-defined target value N, the firstpacket command is assigned to the respective received packet. Forexample, in one implementation, the respective received packet isassigned a mirroring operation and a higher layer processing operation(e.g., performing processing operation at a higher level such asTransport Layer processing operation). If, on the other and, the state210 has reached the pre-defined target value N, the first packet commandis not assigned to the respective received packet a mirroring operationand a higher layer processing operation (e.g., performing processingoperation at a higher level such as Transport Layer processingoperation) are not assigned to the respective received packet.

In an embodiment, the network device is configured to assign a secondpacket command (e.g., deep packet inspection on the payload of thepacket) to every Nth packet within the assigned flow. The state engine106 monitors the state table 200 to compare the state 210 with the statetarget value 230 to determine which packet command to assign to therespective received packet. For example, in an implementation, thenetwork device 100 assigns the first packet command (e.g., a mirroringoperation) to the respective received packet when the correspondingstate 210 is not equal to the state target value 230, and assigns thesecond packet command (e.g., a deep packet inspection on the payload ofthe packet) to the respective received packet when the correspondingstate 210 is equal to the state target value 230.

As discussed above, the metadata for the respective received packets isupdated based on the state 210 within the assigned flow in accordancewith an embodiment. For example, when the metadata is set to value V1(i.e., when the state 210 is equal to zero), the PHA engine isconfigured to do nothing. However, in one implementation, when themetadata is set to value V2 (i.e., when the state 210 is equal to anon-zero value), the PHA engine is, for example, configured to addtelemetry information to the received packets. For example, in someimplementations, the telemetry information includes one or more ofswitch-level information (e.g., switch id), ingress information (e.g.,ingress port id, ingress timestamp), buffer information (e.g., queueoccupancy, queue congestion status), and the like.

FIG. 3 provides a flow chart illustrating a process for processing areceived state packet based on associated state information inaccordance with the disclosed embodiments. At step 310, a packet isreceived through the ingress interface 102 of the network device 100. Atstep 312, the classification engine 104 determines the packet's flowbased, for example, on data in fields of the packet header, attributessuch as a port where the packet is received and other metadata that isgenerated for the packet. Specifically, in an example, the receivedpacket is assigned to one of the plurality of flows based on informationextracted from a header of the received packet, such as destination, apacket type, an application type, quality of service, or the like. Atstep 314, a state table is accessed based on the flow ID. That is, thestate engine 106 stores a respective state table 200 for each of theflows, and a state table corresponding to the flow to which the receivedpacket is assigned is accessed.

At step 316, the state 210 is updated in the state table 200corresponding to the assigned flow. For example, the state valuedecrements by 1 each time a packet is assigned to the respective flow.At step 318, the state 210 is compared to the state target value 230 todetermine the pre-configured action to perform on the received packet.As discussed above, a first pre-configured action 320 is performed whenthe state 210 is not equal to the state target value 230, and a secondpre-configured action 330 is performed when the state 210 reaches thestate target value 230.

Various embodiments discussed in conjunction with FIGS. 1-3 areperformed by various electronic components of one or more electroniccircuits, such as but not limited to an integrated circuit,application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), programmable processor,and/or the like. Various components discussed throughout this disclosuresuch as, but not limited to network devices (e.g., 100 in FIG. 1),and/or the like, are configured to include a set of electronic circuitcomponents, and communicatively operate on one or more electroniccircuits. Each electronic circuit is configured to include any of, butnot limited to logic gates, memory cells, amplifiers, filters, and/orthe like. Various embodiments and components disclosed herein areconfigured to be at least partially operated and/or implemented byprocessor-executable instructions stored on one or more transitory ornon-transitory processor-readable media.

While various embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown anddescribed herein, such embodiments are provided by way of example only.Numerous variations, changes, and substitutions relating to embodimentsdescribed herein are applicable without departing from the disclosure.It is noted that various alternatives to the embodiments of thedisclosure described herein may be employed in practicing thedisclosure. It is intended that the following claims define the scope ofthe disclosure and that methods and structures within the scope of theseclaims and their equivalents be covered thereby.

While operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order,this is not to be construed as requiring that such operations beperformed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or thatall illustrated operations be performed.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for processing a received packet basedon associated state information, the method comprising: receiving, at apacket processor of a network device, packets from a network;classifying a received packet as belonging to at least one respectiveidentified flow from among a plurality of identified flows; for arespective received packet that belongs to an identified flow:ascertaining a current state value for the identified flow, the statevalue corresponding to a number of received packets belonging to theidentified flow; assigning the current state value of the identifiedflow to the respective received packet; updating a header of therespective received packet to include the current state value of theidentified flow; and performing a first packet processing operation onthe respective received packet based in part on the updated header ofthe received packet when the state value of the identified flow to whichthe respective packet belongs is equal to a first state value, andperforming a second packet processing operation, different from thefirst packet processing operation, on the received packet when the statevalue of the identified flow to which the packet belongs in the updatedheader of the received packet is equal to a second state value differentfrom the first state value.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein performinga first packet processing operation based in part on the updated headerof the received packet when the state value of the identified flow towhich the respective packet belongs is equal to a first state valuecomprises performing one or more processing operations including one ormore of: a forwarding operation to forward the respective receivedpacket to one or more different destinations based at least in part onthe first state value; a packet mirroring operation to mirror therespective received packet one or more times based at least in part onthe first state value; and a quality-of-service (QoS) operation to applya QOS level to the respective received packet based at least in part onthe first state value; wherein performing a second packet processingoperation on the received packet when the state value of the identifiedflow to which the packet belongs in the updated header of the receivedpacket is equal to a second state value comprises performing one or moreprocessing operations including one or more of: a forwarding operationto forward the respective received packet to one or more differentdestinations based at least in part on the second state value; a packetmirroring operation to mirror the respective received packet one or moretimes based at least in part on the second state value; and aquality-of-service (QoS) operation to apply a QOS level to therespective received packet based at least in part on the second statevalue.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein ascertaining a current statevalue comprises ascertaining the state value indicative of a number ofpreviously received packets belonging to the identified flow.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: in response to classifying thereceived packet as belonging to at least one respective identified flow,updating the state value indicative of a number of previously receivedpackets belonging to the respective identified flow, the updated statevalue being indicative of a number of currently received packetsbelonging to the respective identified flow.
 5. The method according toclaim 4, wherein updating the header of the respective received packetto include the current state value of the identified flow, comprises:setting an initial value of the state value equal to a pre-definednumber; and decrementing the state value by 1 for each received packetbelonging to the identified flow.
 6. The method according to claim 5,wherein performing a first packet processing operation on the respectivereceived packet based in part on the updated header of the receivedpacket when the state value of the flow to which the respective packetbelongs is equal to a first state value, further comprises: performingthe first packet processing operation on the respective received packetwhen the first state value equals a non-zero value; and whereinperforming a second packet processing operation on the received packetwhen the state value of the identified flow to which the packet belongsin the updated header of the received packet is equal to a second statevalue further comprises: performing the second packet processingoperation, different from the first packet processing operation, on therespective received packet when the second state value equals zero. 7.The method according to claim 5, wherein performing a first packetprocessing operation on the respective received packet based in part onthe updated header of the received packet when the state value of theflow to which the respective packet belongs is equal to a first statevalue further comprises: mirroring the respective received packet to acentral processing unit (CPU) when the first state value equals anon-zero value; wherein performing a second packet processing operationon the received packet when the state value of the identified flow towhich the packet belongs in the updated header of the received packet isequal to a second state value further comprises: mirroring the receivedpacket to a central processing unit (CPU) when the second state valueequals a zero value.
 8. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising: assigning a metadata value associated with the respectivereceived packet equal to a value V1 when the state value is equal to atarget value; assigning the metadata value associated with therespective received packet equal to a value V2 when the state value isnot equal to the target value; and performing one of the first and thesecond packet processing operations on the respective received packetbased on the metadata value associated with the respective receivedpacket.
 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein performing the firstpacket processing operation on the respective received packet based onthe metadata value associated with the respective received packetcomprises: adding telemetry information to the respective receivedpacket when the metadata value associated with the respective receivedpacket is equal to the value V1 indicative of the first state valuebeing equal to the target value; wherein performing the second packetprocessing operations on the received packet based on the metadata valueassociated with the received packet comprises: adding telemetryinformation to the received packet when the metadata value associatedwith the received packet is equal to the value V1 indicative of thesecond state value being equal to the target value.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein classifying the received packets asbelonging to at least one respective identified flow from among theplurality of identified flows comprises: identifying the flow from theplurality of identified flows based on a packet header and attributes ofthe respective received packet; and accessing a state tablecorresponding to the identified flow, the state table being indicativeof a number of received packets assigned to the respective flow.
 11. Anetwork device for processing a received packet based on associatedstate information, the network device comprising: a packet processorconfigured to receive packets from a network; and control circuitryconfigured to: classify a received packet as belonging to at least onerespective identified flow from among a plurality of identified flows;for a respective received packet that belongs to an identified flow:ascertain a current state value for the identified flow, the state valuecorresponding to a number of received packets belonging to theidentified flow; assign the current state value of the identified flowto the respective received packet; update a header of the respectivereceived packet to include the current state value of the identifiedflow; and perform a first packet processing operation on the respectivereceived packet based in part on the updated header of the receivedpacket when the state value of the identified flow to which therespective packet belongs is equal to a first state value, and perform asecond packet processing operation, different from the first packetprocessing operation, on the received packet when the state value of theidentified flow to which the packet belongs in the updated header of thereceived packet is equal to a second state value different from thefirst state value.
 12. The network device of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry, when performing a first packet processing operationbased in part on the updated header of the received packet when thestate value of the identified flow to which the respective packetbelongs is equal to a first state value, is configured to perform one ormore processing operations including one or more of: a forwardingoperation to forward the respective received packet to one or moredifferent destinations based at least in part on the first state value;a packet mirroring operation to mirror the respective received packetone or more times based at least in part on the first state value; and aquality-of-service (QoS) operation to apply a QOS level to therespective received packet based at least in part on the first statevalue; wherein performing a second packet processing operation on thereceived packet when the state value of the identified flow to which thepacket belongs in the updated header of the received packet is equal toa second state value comprises performing one or more processingoperations including one or more of: a forwarding operation to forwardthe respective received packet to one or more different destinationsbased at least in part on the second state value; a packet mirroringoperation to mirror the respective received packet one or more timesbased at least in part on the second state value; and aquality-of-service (QoS) operation to apply a QOS level to therespective received packet based at least in part on the second statevalue.
 13. The network device of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry, when ascertaining a current state value, is configured toascertain the state value is indicative of a number of previouslyreceived packets belonging to the identified flow.
 14. The networkdevice of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry, in response toclassifying the received packet as belonging to at least one respectiveidentified flow, is further configured to: update the state valueindicative of a number of previously received packets belonging to therespective identified flow, the updated state value being indicative ofa number of currently received packets belonging to the respectiveidentified flow.
 15. The network device of claim 14, wherein the controlcircuitry, when updating the state value header of the respectivereceived packet to include the current state value of the identifiedflow, is configured to: set an initial value of the state value equal toa pre-defined number; and decrement the state value by 1 for eachreceived packet belonging to the identified flow.
 16. The network deviceof claim 15, wherein the control circuitry, when performing a firstpacket processing operation on the respective received packet based inpart on the updated header of the received packet when the state valueof the flow to which the respective packet belongs is equal to a firststate value, is configured to: perform the first packet processingoperation on the respective received packet when the first state valueequals a non-zero value; and when performing a second packet processingoperation on the received packet when the state value of the identifiedflow to which the packet belongs in the updated header of the receivedpacket is equal to a second state value, is configured to: perform thesecond packet processing operation, different from the first packetprocessing operation, on the respective received packet when the secondstate value equals zero.
 17. The network device of claim 15, wherein thecontrol circuitry, when performing a first packet processing operationon the respective received packet based in part on the updated header ofthe received packet when the state value of the flow to which therespective packet belongs is equal to a first state value, is configuredto: mirror the respective received packet to a central processing unit(CPU) when the first state value equals a non-zero value; wherein thecontrol circuitry, when performing a second packet processing operationon the received packet based when the state value of the identified flowto which the packet belongs in the updated header of the received packetis equal to a second state value, is configured to: mirror the receivedpacket to a central processing unit (CPU) when the second state valueequals a non-zero value.
 18. The network device of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: assign a metadata valueassociated with the respective received packet equal to a value V1 whenthe state value is equal to a target value; assign the metadata valueassociated with the respective received packet equal to a value V2 whenthe state value is not equal to the target value; and perform one of thefirst and the second packet processing operations on the respectivereceived packet based on the metadata value associated with therespective received packet.
 19. The network device according to claim18, wherein the control circuitry, when performing the first packetprocessing operation on the respective received packet based on themetadata value associated with the respective received packet, isconfigured to: add telemetry information to the respective receivedpacket when the metadata value associated with the respective receivedpacket is equal to the value V1 indicative of the first state valuebeing equal to the target value; wherein the control circuitry, whenperforming the second packet processing operations on the receivedpacket based on the metadata value associated with the received packet,is configured to: add telemetry information to the received packet whenthe metadata value associated with the received packet is equal to thevalue V1 indicative of the second state value being equal to the targetvalue.
 20. The network device according to claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry, when classifying the received packets as belonging to atleast one respective identified flow from among the plurality ofidentified flows, is configured to: identify the flow from the pluralityof identified flows based on a packet header and attributes of therespective received packet; and access a state table corresponding tothe identified flow, the state table being indicative of a number ofreceived packets assigned to the respective flow.